Troy, New York – Boys signing up to play basketball with the Capital District Raptors, an AAU basketball team, learned to do more than guard other players – they’ll actually learn how to save lives. Members of the Sand Lake Ambulance trained the team’s coaches  weeks before and the group decided to train all players ages 9 through 17. Training took place at the Troy Boys and Girls Club at 1700 7^th Ave. in Troy from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 16, to teach Hands-Only CPR to about 100 young men between 5^th grade and 11^th grade.

“Organizationally, we are dedicated to helping our young basketball players mature into young men that will give back to their communities,” said Larry Senior, President,of the Capital District Raptors).  “We thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to help provide our youngsters valuable training that may help them save someone’s life one day.”

“We know that students can learn effective bystander CPR,” said Robbie MacCue, a paramedic and CPR Instructor with the Sand Lake Ambulance. MacCue has helped train more than 1600 students at Averill Park School District. MacCue also volunteers with the American Heart Association in helping to pass the CPR in Schools bill.

“Nearly 400,000 people suffer out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest each year,” MacCue said. “Most of those happen in the home, and having CPR performed doubles or triples the chances of survival. We really need to create a generation of lifesavers, and today over 100 basketball players learned this important skill.”

“Hands-Only CPR can be taught in one or two class periods if taught in a high school. On Saturday, the Sand Lake Ambulance taught the ball players this lifesaving skill in half an hour,” said Howard Carr, chair of the Capital Region Advisory Board. “We know that students have saved lives, and we commend both the ambulance company and the Raptors for empowering these young men to learn how to save a life.”